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FATHER MARQUETTE. 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

jksuit missionary and expi^orer. the) 
discove:rer of the Mississippi. 

HIS PLACE OF BURIAL AT ST. IGNACE 
MICHIGAN. 



BY .. 

REV. SAMUEL HEDGES, A.M. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

BY 

RKV. JOHN J. WYNNE, S.J. 



NEW YORK 

CHRISTIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION PUBLISHING 

COMPANY 

26 BARCLAY STREET 
1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

APR 6 1903 

Copyright Entry 
cuss <K. XXc. Nc 
COPY B. ^ 



.^d 



IFmprlmatut, 



fi* JOHN J. O'CONNOR, 

Bishop of Nezvark. 



mtbll ©bstat. 



Remigius Lafort, S.T.L., 

Censci 



1fmprimatur» 



^ JOHN M. FARLEY, 

Archbishop of New York. 



March io, 1903. 



Copyrighted, iqo3. 



A 



/^ 



^$^\ 



INTRODUCTION. 

In the annals of American chivalry 
no deeds of prowess and self-sacrifice 
are more heroic than those of the 
gentle Marquette, 

Fitted by nature for great enter- 
prises, he was unselfish enough to be 
.content with obscure and with somite- 
what commonplace tasks, performing 
eve7i these with such fidelity and devo- 
tion as to merit distinction. Many 
missionaries labored for the Ottawas, 
but he alone deserved the title of 
" their Angel!' Never neglecting 
the work in hand, his zeal made 
him constantly dream of opening 
up new fields for the evangelical 
harvest, and but few dreamers have 
had either his opp07^tii7iity or courage 
to make their dream, a reality. His 



INTRODUCTION. 

IMI nil— IliWIIII HI I III IWI III M 1 1111111111 1 imiii 

life shows a singular disregard of his 
personal advantage. He had too great 
an estimate of the results of his work 
to emphasize, m.uch less to magnify, 
his own share in accomplishing it. 
Ever coitsiderate of others, the last 
entry in his diary was a zuord of 
sympathy for his stiff ering companions, 
but nothing about himself It is to 
this consideration we owe the careful 
record of his explorations, and it is 
little wonder that we shotild be dis- 
posed to welcome each 7iew tribute to 
the greatness of one who, heedless of 
what glory he might reap fro7n his 
discovery, regarded it only i^i the light 
of an advantage for the souls he might 
save, and for the generations to come 
who would profit by his hardships. 

In preparing this mo7iograph on 
the burial-place of the discoverer of 
the Mississippi the author. Father 
Hedges, has done a distinct service 



INTRODUCTION. 

to everyone who is interested in Father 
Marquette — what American is not? 
To the accuracy of a careful reader 
of Marquette liter atttre he adds the 
charm of writing from personal ob- 
servation ; he has brought together 
what the latest and, in all other 
respects, thorough, biographies of 
Thwaites and Hamy have recorded 
but scantily, or omitted entirely ; and 
not content with compiling the re- 
searches and views of others, he has 
given MS the benefit of his own con- 
victions in a way that compels tts to 
make them otir own. 

In all that has been written about 
Marquette, there is nothing more elo- 
quent than the concluding pages of 
this book, and yet we venture to ques- 
tion the sentiment there so nobly tit- 
tered. If the author s own adm^ira- 
tion and veneration for the worthy 
nobility of character^ unselfishness^ 



mTRODUCTION. 

self-sacrifice J and unswerving devotion 
to duty of Father Mai'quette are so 
strong that he must necessarily ex- 
press ther/i in this essay ^ he must not 
wonder if others^ too^ should feel i7n- 
pelled — those who read his own valu- 
able book will not easily resist the 
impulse — to express in their own way 
their adjniration and veneratio7i for 
Father Marquette, It is on tributes 
like Father Hedges' that we may con- 
fidently base our hopes that the day is 
not far distant whe^i our national dis- 
position to honor what is most heroic 
in the lives of ottr American pioneers 
shall at last lead us to accord to Maj^- 
quette the place that is awaiting his 
statue in the National CapitoL 



JOHN J. WYNNE, S.J. 



NEW YORK, 

March 9th, 1903. 




MARQUETTE'S CHALICE. 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 



MARQUETTE'S CHALICE. 

The chalice is of gold and very 
beautifully wrought by hand. It is 
preserved at the Parieh Church in St. 
Ignace, Michigan. Tradition says 
that the chalice is the one used by 
Father Marquette and kept from des- 
truction by the Christian Indians when 
the old Mission Church was burned. 
By long service the cup has been 
worn through, so that the chalice can 
not now be used. 



11 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

■■limillWIIIMI ■ I II ■till! IIIMI Ill ■ 

The Great Lakes, whether in storm 
or calm, are always attractive, always 
beautiful, always mysterious ; great 
inland seas — crossed and recrossed 
night and day by many thousands of 
vessels laden with iron and coal and 
lumber and pleasure-seekers. Old 
fashioned sail ships now and then ap- 
pear, looking strangely out of place 
alongside of the great iron barge of 
steam — yet stately and beautiful— hav- 
ing an old world look in their leisure pace 
13 



FATHER MAEQUETTE. 

— a kind of quiet dignity as they move 
slowly along. Yet this contrast of the 
sailing ship with the swift modern steam 
ship is no stronger than the contrast 
between the sailing ship and the first 
boat of these waters— the Indian canoe. 
But when we come to consider the 
greatest voyage ever made along the 
shores and across the bays of these 
waters — -greatest because of its all but 
insurmountable dangers and hardships; 
greatest, because of the men who made 
it; greatest because of the object and 
result of it- — our admiration deepens to 
awe to think that it was in a birch bark 
canoe that the voyage was made. From 
Mission St. Ignace to where the Ar- 
kansas flows into the Mississippi and 
back again— across unknown waters of 

Lakes, up and down unknown rivers ; 
14 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

tlirouoli and alono: dark and unknown 

forests; among unknown and savage 

men — surely this voyage of discovery 

had only one greater than itself — the 

one made by Columbus. 

To visit Mission St. Ignace to-day, 

no matter at what point in the United 

States you may be, is an easy trip — 

for you have swift going express trains 

by land, and palatial and swift steamers 

by water ; and less than a week suffices 

to cross the continent in any direction. 

If you are here in New Jersey a trip 

up the Hudson to the Capital, on to 

Buffalo, and then through Lake Erie 

to Cleveland, and then across the Lake 

to Detroit— and in and out, and through 

the rivers to Lake Huron, and then at 

last across the straits of Mackinac and 

very speedily and comfortably — -you 
15 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

are landed at the village of St. Ignace, 
where was Mission St. Ignace from 
which Marquette set forth to find the 
great river and to tell the world of the 
mighty waters flowing down to the sea. 
You will not find much at the end of 
your voyage to remind you of Mar- 
quette, or Mission St. Ignace, or to re- 
cord the fact that from this point set 
forth two of the stoutest hearts that 
ever beat in the breasts of men- — on a 
voyage so wonderful that its very won- 
derf ulness has made it little noted by 
men. Nor will you meet many who 
know much of Marquette or Mission 
St. Ignace— for the very site of it and 
the resting place of the sainted body of 
the great discoverer were lost to all 
knowledge of men for over a hundred 

years, and only a happy accident dis- 
16 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

covered them. So let us tell again the 
story of Marquette, ever wonderful, ever 
interesting, if only to add a chapter on 
the place of his burial, and to record, if 
we may humbly do so, some historic 
facts that the world should know of 
how his grave was found and where it 
is. The data for this new chapter is 
meagre indeed, but such as the facts 
are, we shall set them forth, as best we 
may. 



17 



II. 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Father Marquette was born in 
France in the city of Laon, department 
of the Aisne.* He was the son of 
Nicholas Marquette and Eose de la 
Salle. He was born June 1st, 1637. 
He was the sixth and last child of his 
parents. His biographers tell us that 
his family was one of distinction and 

* M. Alfred Hamy in his recent work on Mar- 
quette "Au Mississippi" (Champion, Paris, 1903) 
gives the following facts collected from the Cata- 
logues of the Jesuit province of Champagne : 
"Marquette Jacobus, Laundunensis, Natus 1 die 
Junii 1637 : ingressus in societatem, 8 Octobris 
1654 Nancaei ; vota coadjutorum spiritualim 
emisit, 2 Julii 1671, in Canada, ad Sanctae 
Mariae Saltum Algonquinorum. Studuit philoso- 
18 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

wealth and if not bearing any title of 
nobility directly in the male line of 
descent, yet it was allied by marriage 
to those who were ennobled. Be this 
as it may, it is certain that the Mar- 

phiae Mussiponti (1656-1659) ; Remis, niagister 
quintae et quartae (1659-61) ; Carolopoli, niag- 
ister tertiae (1661-63) ; Lingonis, magister tertiae 
(1663-64) ; Mussiponti, magister humanitatem 
(1664-65) ; Mussiponti, relegit philosophiam et 
studet theologiae morali (1665-66). AdvenitQue 
beci, 20 Septembris 1666. Vita functus 18 vel 
19 Mail 1675." 

TRANSLATION. 

"James Marquette, born at Laon, June 1st 
1637. Entered the Jesuit Order at Nancy, Octo- 
ber 8th, 1654. Made his vows of spiritual coaju- 
torship at Sault St. Marie, Canada, July 2d 1671. 
Studied philosophy at Pont a Mousson 1656-59. 
Professor of Fourth and Fifth Grammar at Reims 
1659-61. Professor of Third Grammar at Charle- 
ville 1661-63. Professor of Third Grammar at 
Lanqres 1663-64. Professor of Humanities at 
Pont a Mousson 1664-65. Reviewed his philos- 
ophy and read- moral Theology at Pont a Mous- 
son 1665-66. Came to Quebec, September 20th 
1666. Died the 18th or 19th May 1675." 
19 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

quettes held offices of distinction and 
trust under the Crown, were men of 
importance in their own city and prov- 
ince, and were rewarded for services ren- 
dered the state. So the boy, Jacques 
Marquette, had the advantages of cul- 
tured environment and of education, 
such as the ample means of his father 
could and did afford him. His voca- 
tion to the religious life and the holy 
priesthood came to him early in his life. 
He had passed his seventeenth birth- 
day, when on Oct. 8th, he entered the 
Jesuit College at Nancy as a novice. 
We get glimpses of him at Pont-a- 
Mousson and at Kheims and at Charle- 
ville and at Langres. His, doubtless, 
was the life of the Jesuit scholastic of 
his days, as of all days since the founda- 
tion of the great order. Hours of 
20 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

prayer and meditation, longer hours of 
teaching, still longer hours of deep and 
profound study, which has made the 
Jesuit what he is — a man of saintly 
character, of accurate learning and dis- 
tinguished cidture. We are told of 
his line mind, his aptness for languages, 
his zeal in study, his advancement in 
piety ; — and this is about the sum of 
his life up to the year 1666, when he 
received with much joy the order of his 
superior to proceed to Canada, then 
termed New France. Of all that band 
of noble Jesuit missionaries — and the 
list of them is long and brilliant with 
the names of men who did great things 
for God and religion — AUouez, the 
Lalements, Jogues, Druillettes, Dablon, 
Garnier, Eene Goupil, Du Thet, Bre- 

boeuf, Ghabanel, Le Jeune, Menard, 
21 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Chaumonot, Masse, Biard, Garreau— 
none more gentle, none more saintly, 
none more capable, none more aflame 
with the fire of religious zeal, none 
more awake to the great ojoportunities 
of great things to be done for civiliza- 
tion than Father Marquette. He ar- 
rived in Canada at Quebec, Sept. 20th, 
1666 ; and in October of the same 
year, he was sent to Three Rivers, to 
Father Druillettes, to begin the study of 
the Indian languages and to obtain 
some insight of the life of a missionary. 
Quebec and Three Rivers were only 
frontier settlements in those days, not 
much more than mere trading posts 
filled with rough men of a rough life. 
" The strenuous life " is a catch expres- 
sion of to-day ; but indeed it well de- 
scribes the life of a Jesuit in the wilds 
22 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

of Canada in the year of our Lord, 
1666. Into this strenuous life Mar- 
quette plunged with an ardor, born of 
his zeal and youth. How strange and 
novel must have been the scenes that 
surrounded him, accustomed as he had 
been to the elegant refinement and ex- 
quisite culture of the France of his 
day ! France contrasted with Canada 
must have given the young priest much 
food for long thoughts ; but then 
likely enough his thoughts were seldom 
on France, but were poured out on this 
new and strange world to which he 
had earnestly asked God in his day 
prayers and night prayers to send him 
— if, indeed, he might be worthy to 
bear the tidings of great joy to a new 
and savage people. The motto of his 

great order, '^ Ad Majoram Dei Glor- 
23 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

iam/' must have served him as some 
consolation and encouragement, when 
he settled down in the log^ house of 
Father Druillettes, to master a rude 
and barbarous language in order that he 
might preach Christ, and Christ Cruci- 
fied, to a people ruder and more bar- 
barous than their language. Two 
years he spent with Druillettes, years of 
hard study and harder life, for, doubt- 
less, he was up the river, and afar into 
forests, drilling, as it were, for the 
actual warfare of mission-life to come. 



24 



III. 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 



It was in April, 1668, that Father 
Marquette actually set out for his field 
of missionary labor among the Ottawas. 
He, with several others, left Quebec in 
that month, for Montreal ; and from 
there, journeyed to the " Sault," the 
headquarters of the Society for mission 
work. 

Sault de Sainte Marie is the name 

given to rapids, where Lake Superior 

begins to pour oat its burden of 

waters towards Lake Huron, whose 

final outlet is at Detroit. The '^ Sault," 

in Marquette's day, was a busy place, 
25 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

for here came many Indians to trade 

and to fish, and here too came many 

white men to trade in furs, and here 

also was the mission St. Mary, the 

headquarters of the Fathers laboring 

among the Ottawas. By the term 

Ottawas was designated the Indian 

tribes Chippewas, Beavers, Creeks, 

Ottawas, Huron s, Menomonees, Potta- 

watomies. Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes, 

Miamis, Illinois and the Sioux. Along 

the shores of Lake Superior and Lake 

Huron, through the woods of Michigan 

and Wisconsin, along the banks of the 

rivers were scattered these tribes and to 

them the Jesuits ministered, and to 

them the trader ventured. The Sault 

de Ste. Marie was the heart, as it were, 

of all this activity, the place whence 

they set out and to which they re- 
26 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

turned, the place which was linked to 
civilization — to Quebec and Montreal — 
albeit the linking was by the route 
alonof the shore of Lake Huron and the 
banks of the Mattawan, Ottawa and the 
St. Lawrence. The " Soo " of to-day is 
still a busy place, where the great locks 
are, that make continuous travel by 
water possible from Buffalo to Duluth. 
Many ships pass in the day and in the 
night, and all day and all night, the 
very scenes of this early Jesuit mission. 
It is the trade and barter of 1600, be- 
tween a few Indian tribes and a hand- 
ful of white men developed into the 
vast trade and barter of 1900. The 
Jesuit is still there amidst the scenes of 
this newer and greater activity, his 
modest church standing in the midst 

of the beautiful little city, and he 

27, 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

preaches as did Marquette to pale-face 
and red-man. There is a Father Garnier 
there to-day, as there was a Father 
Garnier in 1699. — =And like the Jesuit 
of those long years ago, this good 
Father wanders along the shores of the 
bays — and does missionary work among 
the poor remnants of the great Indian 
tribes, half-breeds now for the most 
part, preaching to them, and instructing 
them in their own language. 

Marquette went from Mission Sault 
Ste. Marie to Mission La Pointe on 
Lake Superior on Chequamegon Bay, 
where he arrived Sept. 14th., 1669. 
Here it was that Marquette labored till 
the mission was abandoned in 1671. 
It is not our purpose, in writing this 
account, to go into detail, nor is it 

needful. Parkman, Shea, and Thaites, 

28 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Dr. Sparks^ Alfred Hamy and the ever 
interesting " Retalious " give all that 
can be known of mission La Pointe and 
the reasons why it was abandoned — the 
Hurons fleeing from their dreaded foe, 
the Sioux. 

We have undertaken very briefly to 
tell anew the story of Marquette, in 
order to lead up to the real object of 
undertaking it at all ; to set forth what 
facts we have in hand concerning the 
discovery of Marquette's grave, and to 
prove that the modest marble shaft in 
Marquette Park, St. Ignace, Michigan, 
really marks the final resting-place of 
the great missionary. 



29 



IV. 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

There is something pathetic in the 
history of the abandonment of any 
great enterprise, nor is the record of the 
abandonment of Mission La Pointe 
without its pathos. The Sioux had de- 
clared war with the Hurons. For the 
Hurons to have accepted the challenge 
would have meant their utter destruc- 
tion. There was left then only flight 
to the South and rememberinof their old 
home at Michillimackinac, thither they 
determined to go and thither went with 

with them, Marquette. 
30 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

There can be little doubt that the 
Blaekrobe sat in their council circle, 
and took part in their deliberations, 
which determined their flight, though 
he likely could not have foreseen that 
this flight meant the abandonment of 
the mission field of Lake Superior for 
over a hundred years. 

Back they wandered, a flotilla of 

canoes, containing many families of the 

two tribes, the Hurons and the Ottawas 

and such belongings as savages take 

with them. Among them was the 

canoe of Marquette and perhaps two 

or more pack canoes of his, holding the 

outfit of the mission Chapel. What a 

strange journey for a trained European 

scholar, a gentleman of France, albeit 

a holy Jesuit missionary ! They passed 

Mission Sault Ste. Marie in their flight 
31 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

downward and there Marquette must 
have met Druillettes, who was then in 
charge of the Sault. The stay of the 
wanderers at best was short, for the 
trip which we now make in a few hours 
took many days of hardpaddhng. But 
to see and converse with Father Druil- 
lettes, in his own language, to be con- 
soled and sustained by the holy Sacra- 
ment of Penance, to hear what word he 
might of the other Fathers and their 
work, to get some new word of the 
great river of whose discovery he 
had begun to dream while at La 
Pointe, surely all this was a joy to 
Marquette. 

In time they went on down the 
river, — those of you who have made 
the trip from the " Soo " to Mackinac 

Island know the exquisite beauty of 
32 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

every mile of that stretch of water 
which connects Lake Superior with 
Lake Huron, which is called St. Mary's 
River — till they came to its mouth. 
Here the Ottawas left the Hurons, go- 
ing eastward, but the Hurons kept on 
toward Michillimackinac, the Mackinac 
Island of our day. 

They were bound for Mission St. 
Ignace. Now, whether this mission 
was the first established on the island, 
and afterwards moved to the mainland, 
we have no means of telling, save by 
conjecture. This we do know for cer- 
tain, that it was established on the 
mainland eventually, across the straits 
from Mackinac Island and on the shore 
of Moran Bay, and that here Marquette 
built a log Church and his own place 

of dwelling. But, there is no profit in 
33 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

conjecturing whether the mission was 
first established on the island and after- 
wards removed to the mainland, nor 
need to do so. We have heard resi- 
dents of the Island and residents of 
St. Ignace dispute and wax warm 
in argument over the matter, just as if 
there was not glory enough in the 
fact that Marquette was at both the 
one place and the other. It was past 
mid-summer, of that year, when the re- 
fugees landed on the shores of Moran 
Bay and Marquette was soon busy with 
the affairs of his mission, establishing 
his people, instructing them and minis- 
tering to the very old and the very 
young, for the babes he could baptize 
to Christ and he could give the same 
holy rite to those about to depart this 

life. Here was his new home and new 
34 




Marquette Instructing the SavagSi 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 



field of labor ; from here he was to go 
forth on that great voyage of discovery 
which has made him famous amona* 
the world's great ones. 



t> 



37 



V. 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 



Mission St. Ignace, and all that con- 
cerns it, is of great interest to us, be- 
cause Marquette personally established 
it. There may have been a mission 
post on Mackinac Island before Mar- 
quette arrived, but his wandering 
Hurons finally took up their abode on 
the mainland and there Marquette ac- 
companied them. The Chapel built 
there must have been erected under 
Marquette's direction. From here he 
set out to discover the Mississippi. To 
Mission St. Ignace he struggled hard 

to return, when death was upon him. 
38 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Here the Indians brought his body 
for final burial. Mission St. Ignace 
endures to this very day, and the dust 
of his bones is mingled with the earth 
of the shore of Moran Bay, where first 
he landed, when he came to establish 
this missionary post. By the time he 
had fully established Mission St. Ignace 
he had gained by experience that 
knowledge which equipped him as a full 
fledged missionary — a knowledge of the 
Indian traits and character — perfection 
in speaking the different Indian lan- 
guages, for he had a knowledge of six 
different dialects. His geographical 
knowledge had been perfected by ob- 
servation and study and map-making. 
He had that larger knowledge which 
comes by actual experience of travel and 

observation, for he was up and down 
39 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

the lake shores and across the straits, 
and it is only a mile or so across the 
tongue of the peninsula from Moran 
Bay, in Lake Huron to Little Moran 
Bay in Lake Michigan. Here there 
are high lands on which you may 
stand and see both the Great Lakes and 
their islands and bays and the straits 
that connect them. However busy he 
may have been with his work proper 
instructing, ministering the rites of re- 
ligion. Mass and Of&ce — he was busy 
too in the woods and on the lake in his 
canoe, perfecting his knowledge of 
boating, of hunting, of fishing, of 
forestry, of botany, of geology, of 
mineralogy — for the Jesuit missionary 
of those days, though by force of cir- 
cumstances a woodsman and fur-trader, 

capable of taking care of himself and 
40 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

maintaining himself even if alone 
in the forests or oa the LakeSj was also 
a scholar and student. Like the red 
men about the mission, they came to be 
the keenest observers of nature ; and 
earth and sky and woods and water was 
their library — their books so to speak — 
in which they read night and day. 
Take for instance the phenomenon of 
the tides, of the straits. In fishing and 
boating about the straits the writer has 
often been puzzled by what he took for 
currents from Lake Michigan^ as it 
empties into Lake Huron. But obser- 
vation and experience showed him that 
the currents, as he thought them, as 
often tended toward Lake Michigan, 
as from it. Marquette had noticed this 
long ago and in one of his reports to 

his superiors he refers to it and offers 
41 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

an explanation, which we believe a true 
explanation for this singular phenom- 
enon, the tides of the Great Lakes. 
He made long journeys by canoe from 
Mission St. Ignace ; going as far as 
Mission Sault Ste. Marie on one occasion 
a canoe trip of over one hundred and 
fifty miles, or if you count the shore 
paddling — for a canoist of those days, 
did not venture to the open lake, any 
more than a canoist of our time — it 
must have been near to three hundred 
miles. 



42 



VI. 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 



Mission St. Ignace, or rather we had 

betfcer say, the site of Mission St. Ig- 

nace, is situated nearly at the middle of 

the shore line of Moran Bay. As has 

been noted, aoross the mainland, which 

is a narrow tongue of land that forms 

the extreme southern point of the upper 

peninsula of Michigan there is another 

bay of the same name in Lake Michigan. 

One is designated great Moran Bay — 

the one of Lake Huron — and the other 

little Moran Bay. We have asked a 

hundred times, of as many different 

persons, whence these bays derived their 
43 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

names, but have failed to obtain any 
information. No one either at St. 
Ignace or Mackinac Island could give 
the least information on the subject. 
Marquette's own map, though it very 
accurately shows the bay in Lake 
Huron, does not name it, but where 
the bay is shown on the map, we find 
the words " Mission de St. Ignace," 
and the Lake is designated as " Lac des 
Hurons.'' On the same map Lake 
Superior is called, '^ Lac Tracy au 
Superieur," so named of course for in- 
tendant de Tracy. Tracy and Moran 
are surely Celtic enough to engage 
speculation, though the former name is 
French enough, as may be the latter. 
But, it is said, that wherever you find 
a white man you may find an Irish man. 

Anyhow one Moran has left his name 

44 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

to a beautiful bay in Lake Huron and 
to one not quite so beautiful in Lake 
Michigan, and on the former is Mission 
St. Ignaee. Likely enough — and let 
some one with the facts contradict us 
— amongst those early fur traders — and 
perhaps in Marquette's own time — for 
names early given, cling longest, was a 
native of the Emerald Isle, who bore 
the name of Moran and who was dis- 
tinguished enough to leave it to this 
beautiful bay. We have met Indians 
around these regions, liaK-breeds, of 
course, though perfect types of Indians 
with features, form, habits and skin 
color of Indians, who bear Celtic names 
which would seem to prove that very 
early there was inter-marriage between 
the Celtic traders, as there was with the 

French traders and Indian women. 

47 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

When Marquette made his trip from 
Mission St. Ignace to Mission Sault de 
Ste. Marie he had the good fortune to 
meet Joliet there, who was returning to 
Quebec from an expedition. To dis- 
cover and explore the great river, im- 
perfect knowledge of which they had 
from wandering Indian tribes, was in 
the minds and ambition of all the ex- 
plorers of the day. Joliet and Mar- 
quette in particular, were anxious to 
undertake the expedition. Doubtless, 
therefore, when they met at Mission 
Sault de Marie, this great venture was 
the theme of their conversation ; nor 
were these two great men chance ac- 
quaintances, though chance brought 
them together on this occasion at the 
mission post at the outlet of Lake 

Superior. Events were hastening the 

48 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

consummation of their heart's desire. 
They had been companions and friends 
in Canada ; Providence was to make 
them companions in that great voyage 
to the Mississippi. Marquette, his 
business transacted, had returned to 
Mission St. Ignace ; Joliet had gone on 
to Quebec to report to the French au- 
thorities. December 8th, — -auspicious 
day, — the Feast of Mary Immaculate, 
1672, marked Joliet's arrival at Mis- 
sion St. Ignace, bearing a commission 
for himself from the Governor of New 
France, and one for Marquette from 
his superiors to undertake the voyage 
of discovery and claim the one for the 
kingdom of France, the other for the 
kingdom of God — all the adjacent 
lands and the great water-way itseK. 



49 



VII. 

FATHER MARQUETTE. 

On May 17th, 1673. Marquette 
and Joliet with five Frenchmen, as 
canoeists, voyagers they were called, in 
two birch-bark canoes, started on the 
ever memorable journey of exploration. 
The time of preparation had been short 
for so long and hazardous an under- 
taking. Father Pier son, Marquette's 
successor, had arrived and the mission 
had been handed over to him, and so 
when the ice had gone out of the straits, 
the expedition set forth. Those two 
canoes, besides carrying seven men had 

to carry guns, clothing, food, robes, 
50 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

books and scientific instruments, though 
likely the books were limited to the 
priest's breviary and note-books, and 
the instruments a compass or two and a 
sun-dial. 

Compare this expedition in its out- 
fit, with an expedition of to-day of 
equal import and duration. The modern 
one would be made in an ocean-going 
steam yacht, accompanied by a govern- 
ment war ship. There would be sur- 
veyors and astronomers and botanists 
and geologists and newspaper represen- 
tatives and magazine writers, perhaps 
a chaplain but as likely enough not, a 
battalion of servants, not omitting some 
first rate chef, with helpers half a score. 
There would be officers from both army 
and navy with their contingent of 

soldiers and marines. There would be 
51 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

representatives of foreign countries, in 
all, perhaps, some hundred people and 
two modern steam-ships with steam 
propelling-tenders stored away on their 
decks. Marquette and Joliet set out in 
two birch-bark canoes with seven men 
all told, to make up the personal of the 
expedition. Something of a contrast 
surely, yet an expedition of 1902 hardly 
would have exceeded, in results ob- 
tained, the expedition of 1673. The 
two explorers had knowledge of the ex- 
istence of the great river, but a knowl- 
edge that was vague, uncertain and 
unreliable. It seems quite certain 
that white men had seen the river and 
noted it, long before our explorer's 
canoes floated down on its waters. 
Marquette undoubtedly had informa- 
tion about the river, but such as wan- 
52 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

dering Illinois Indians, whose language 
he had acquired at Mission La Pointe, 
could give liim or such as he had gleaned 
from voyagers and fur traders who 
came and went among the mission 
camps. But he knew the great river 
was there to the south, he had learned 
of a vast and fertile country teaming 
with people, superior, if reports were 
true, to the Indians of the north. To 
him it was an empire for conquest, but 
a conquest for God and eternal salva- 
tion of souls made to His image and 
likeness. Joliet knew of the great 
river too, but his knowledge was no 
more accurate than Marquette's. We 
doubt if he knew as much. He was 
the government's accredited agent, to 
be sure, but his government had only 
vague and unreliable reports to furnish 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

him. He was not without experience 
as an explorer. In this he exceeded 
Marquette. He, too, had heard of a 
vast region to the south of the Great 
Lakes and his was a dream of empire, 
of conquest for France. But Mar- 
quette's gentle piety, his enduring zeal 
for the salvation of the souls of the 
Indian people, must have inspired Joliet 
with a desire of conquest for God, 
through France's aid. They were 
brave men, those two, they were good 
men both. They loved God and they 
loved France, and they strove for God 
and Fatherland. 



54 



VIII 

FATHER MARQUETTE. 

It is aside from our purpose to go 
into any detail, of the wonderful journey 
of these intrepid explorers in their 
search for the great river. More than 
to note the stages of the voyage out 
and the return is not our aim. Their 
first halting place was Green Bay, or 
rather at Mission St. Francois Xavier 
at De Pere — to which mission Mar- 
quette had been transferred on leaving 
Mission St. Ignace in order that he 
might have his headquarters nearer to 
the scenes of his labors. From De Pere 

they pushed on through the Fox River 

55 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

to Lake Winnebago, in which vicinity 
they made their second halt, remaining 
three days at an Indian village of the 
Mascouten. This region, Lake Winne- 
bago, marked the extreme limit of ex- 
ploration, of fur traders, missionary, or 
voyagers. 

Here they parleyed with the Indians, 
seeking information and guides. Mar- 
quette has left an interesting account 
of this, their second halt, in his report 
describing the country, the people, and 
the lake, and river, and referring to the 
speech that Joliet made to the assembled 
tribes. Take your map, any ordinary 
good school atlas map will serve you, 
and trace the journey as we have in- 
dicated it. Begin at Point St. Ignace 
in Michigan, and run your pencil along 

the course of the lake shore to Green 
56 



FATHER MARQUETTE. ' 

Bay, then along tlie Fox River to the 
end of Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin 
and you may form some idea of the 
trip. Better still, if you love the life 
" Au large " and have the leisure and 
can manage a canoe, and may find a 
companionable companion, make the 
trip from Moran Bay in Lake Huron at 
St. Ignace, to the city of Oskosh, Wis- 
consin. Be prepared of course for much 
"strenuous life," for many hardships, 
for much discomfort, for no little 
danger. But expect a world of pleas- 
ure and health, a world of beauty, of 
water and sky, and wood and river. It 
will not be the same scene that Mar- 
quette and Joliet looked on, for you 
will pass many towns and cities, great 
mills and factories, great steam-propelled 

boats ladened with every conceivable 

57 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

merchandise, and beautiful pleasure 
boats of sail and steam. You will meet 
with people on every side, and now and 
then will pass a canoe. You will 
realize as you may realize in no other 
way the great achievement of Marquette 
and Joliet in going even so far as Lake 
Winnebago. It will not be the same 
scenes that engaged the attention of the 
two explorers, and yet it will be the 
same scenes — for there will be some 
days when no boat or human being may 
be met, only forests and streams, only 
the musical silence of deep woods, for 
the sounds of the forest only emphasize 
their silence, as all who have trod a 
blazed trail may know. You will hear 
only the splash of the water leaving 
your paddle, for your companion, let 

him be ever so loquacious, will be like 

58 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

yourself, awed into silence, by the 
silence of the forest. We make no 
doubt that the two canoes holding the 
seven men of that great journey, glided 
along many a time, for many a mile 
without a word being spoken, even 
when there was no fear of hostile In- 
dians. In your canoe trip of to-day 
you may chance to meet some Indian 
fishermen on the lake, and a trapper on 
the river, for both are still there, strange 
and interesting derelicts of those years 
ago, when life was new on this continent 
and almost the whole of it a terra in- 
cognita. Better not start your voyage 
in May as did Marquette and Joliet. 
It will prove too cold and weather too 
blustery for even a hardened canoeist at 
so early a date. Take June for your 

month, and even then, about your chaf- 
59 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

iug dish wrap a blanket or two that 
may seem utterly needless. Finally 
nnless you are a seasoned and experi- 
enced canoeist make not the trip at all ; 
for even at this day it requires a strong 
hand and a strong heart and a strong 
boat to make it; and an amateur had 
better read about it than undertake it. 



60 



IX. 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 



At the Mascouten village the ex- 
plorers had asked for guides and two 
Miami Indians had been assigned to 
them for the purpose. Entering the 
upper Fox, they ascended till their 
guides pointed out the place of portage 
and then crossing it, they entered the 
Wisconsin. Here the Miami left them, 
and they started once more on their 
long journey to the sea. Did ever 
men " who go down to the sea in ships " 
have their minds filled with deeper mis- 
givings, with greater anticipation, with 

keener fear and ultimate hope, than the 
61 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

seven brave Frenchmenj who glided out 
into the waters of the Wisconsin that 
June morning in the year of 1673 ? 

They were sure now of success in 
finding the Mississippi, barring accident 
or death. They were not entirely sure 
how long it would take them to reach 
the river, but they could fairly well 
calculate the time from what they had 
learned at the Mascouten village. 
They had left Mission St. Ignace May 
17th, and it was now June 10th. Seven 
days of paddling down the swift Wis- 
consin and they emerged on the mighty 
river in search of which they had come ; 
and Marquette wrote that he looked on 
those swift running waters with a " joy 
that I cannot express." Back through 
the Wisconsin, and the Fox, and Lake 

Winnebago and the lower Fox — back 
62 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

along the shores of Green Bay and 
Lake Michigan — Lac Des Illinois — 
through the straits to Lake Huron — 
back through St. Mary's River to the 
" Soo ''—to Mission Sault de St. Marie 
through the lakes and swamps by the 
shorter route to Mission La Pointe on 
Lake Superior seemed a long, long way 
cind a long, long time to the place and 
date, when Marquette first talked to the 
Indians of a band of Illinois, of the 
river he had come in search of, and 
which he and Joliet had now at last 
discovered. What in that far north 
mission camp was only a day-dream 
had here at the mouth of the Wiscon- 
sin on June 17th, 1673, become a 
realization. Memorable day indeed ! 
An event forever memorable in the 

annals of our history. But for these 
63 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

men who had gone down to the sea in 
ships — two birch-bark canoes — had they 
been able to realize it, the journey had 
not yet ended — for indeed it had only 
began. What hardships they had en- 
dured, what difficulties surmounted, 
what dangers overcome in the pleasant 
waters of the Great Lakes and the 
smaller rivers, were as nothing, to the 
hardships and difficulties and dangers 
yet before them. Hostile Indians, a 
more hostile foe, the fever of the low 
river, barred their way. Canoeing, in 
the rush of this debris-laden river was 
far more difficult. Death was in the 
stream and death was on the shore ; 
but, they faltered not — for they joy- 
ously began their descent and kept on 
till they came to the mouth of the 

Arkansas. Here they halted for con- 
64 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

sultation. Believing that they were 
within two or three days of the sea, 
convinced that the object of their un- 
dertaking had been fully accomplished, 
they turned back northward on July 
17th, 1673. If they had brave hearts 
in coming down the river, they had 
need of braver hearts for their return. 
They were spent with labor and the 
long strain of excitement. 

The noble Marquette was spent too 
with disease — for sickness had come 
upon him ; but, what cared he ? His 
work had been accomplished. Had he 
not given his all " Ad Majorem Dei 
Gloriam," mind and body? 



65 



X. 

FATHER MARQUETTE. 

The explorers had come up the Mis- 
sissippi as far as the mouth of the 
Ilhnois. They had learned either on 
the downward or upward trip, that there 
was a shorter route to the Great Lakes 
by way of the Illinois, and so they en- 
tered this stream glad, we have no 
doubt, to get into safer and quieter 
waters. The waters of the Illinois, of 
course, could not afford them direct 
passage to Lake Michigan. From some 
point, on its course, they went by port- 
age, across to either the Chicago River 

or to the Desplaines. Likely, they took 

66 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

the former water-way, for we know that 
later on, it became the usual route to 
those seeking the Great Lakes from the 
Mississippi. Once in the lakes their 
canoes were headed direct for the port- 
age, at Sturgeon Bay, where by a carry 
they saved many miles of paddling, and 
at last floated their canoes on the more 
familiar waters of Green Bay. Their 
destination was Mission St. Frangois 
Xavier. We can well imagine that 
their paddles were given a longer sweep 
as they urged their canoes on, for the 
end of the journey meant rest and the 
meeting of friends. They were very 
tired too, with a tire that comes from 
mind strain, as well as from bodily 
fatigue. Out from the waters of the 
bay, they urged their canoes again into 

the Fox and at last after four months' 

67 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

of incessant toil, they reached Mission 
St. Frangois Xavier. It must have been 
like a home-coming to them. It was a 
home-coming. Word had gone ahead, 
for even in those wilds, great news and 
small travelled fast. They had been 
seen here or there and so those at the 
Mission were in expectation. Very 
weary and far spent were those seven 
brave men as they stepped out on the 
banks of the river and were greeted by 
their friends, at this outermost mission 
at De Pere. It was now late in Sep- 
tember, the time of stress and storm on 
the Great Lakes. Farther journeying 
was out of the question, both because 
of their exhausted condition and be- 
cause of the lateness of the season. 
They sat down therefore to rest, to 

write their reports. Doubtless, many 

68 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

of the long winter nights were spent by 
Marquette and Joliet in pleasant eon- 
verse about their voyage, their narrow 
escape from death, of the new countries 
they had seen, of many brave projects 
for the people of these new lands. 
Quietly, they passed the winter at De 
Pere, and theirs was the satisfaction of 
a great work, manfully and successfully 
accomplished. But they were not with- 
out occupation. Each set about writ- 
ing his official report. Marquette's 
alone was preserved for us — for alas ! 
Joliet had the great misfortune to lose 
his, when in an accident in which he 
almost lost his life, his canoe was upset 
as he was returning and his papers lost. 
This was at La Chine Eapids in the 
Ottawa River near Montreal. Mar- 
quette's account with his wonderful 
69 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

maps — mind jou — drawn at a mission 
camp from memory, and hastily gath- 
ered data taken down while in a canoe, 
on lake and river reached his superiors 
at Quebec. His report and the accom- 
panying maps are of exceeding value 
and interest to historians, geographers 
and antiquarians. 



70 



XL 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 



In October, 1674, Marquette again 
started south to retrace his steps and to 
fulfil his promise to the Illinois, of 
visiting their country and evangelizing 
them. He had lonof been ill. The 
thirteen months he had spent at De 
Pere had but partially restored his 
shattered health. It was the evidence 
of the greatness of the man's soul, that 
having drawn his maps and given his 
report of the discovery of the Mis- 
sissippi, and forwarded this precious 
document by the hands of faithful In- 
dians, to his superiors at Quebec, he 
71 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Bill llllHIMUMHWIIIBIIIllllll HH lllll ll l I iiimiHHriMWrT i T 

dismissed that great accomplishment 
from his mind, and quietly and humbly 
went about his Father's business, like 
his great Master. It was not that he 
was insensible or ignorant of the great- 
ness and importance to France and the 
world, of the work he had accomplished. 
Let Joliet, his dear friend and com- 
panion, reap the temporal reward and 
fame of it, if such there was to be. 
He had done his part. Now, there was 
another and to him, far greater, and far 
more important work to which to put 
his hand. If the voyage of discovery 
had been undertaken, it was only that 
a way might be opened to the real work 
to which his life was consecrated. His 
work was to teach the savage of these 
wilds, of Christ and Christ crucified. 

Marquette was shnply in his own heart 

72 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

and ambition, a Jesuit missionary. In 
a future age, there may be a calendar 
of American saints. First and most 
glorious among them will be Jacques 
Marquette, Indian missionary. The 
month of October was late to start on 
a canoe trip that would take him so far 
as he intended to go. None knew this 
better than Marquette — yet, his zeal 
urged him forth. He reached the 
Chicago River, which was frozen over 
and deep with ice, and here he was 
forced to spend the winter, stricken 
with the sickness that was at last to 
bring to him the Angel of Death. He 
arrived at the river, December 4th, hav- 
ing left Mission Sfc. Frangois at De Pere 
in October. The following March he 
began the mission work. 

It is on record, how he labored, go- 
73 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

ing here and there among the Indians ; 
his gentle manners, his holy life, his 
eloquent words winning him the affec- 
tion and esteem of the rude people to 
whom he ministered. Realizing that 
death was upon him, he turns reluct- 
antly northward again. Through the 
maze of river and lake, over portage, 
and by new and strange routes they 
sought the lake — Marquette and his 
companions. At last, through the lake 
and river, now known as the Pere Mar- 
quette they gained the open lake. It 
was the end of his life's voyage. They 
could not go on because of the rough 
waters of the lake. More likely they 
could not go on, because Marquette 
was dying. They turned again and 
sought the quiet waters of the river 

and here on the bank where they had 

74 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

carried him, attended only by his two 
faithful voyagers — his great soul passed 
into the hands of God. It was Satur- 
day, May 18th, 1675. The site where 
he died is near the city of Ludington, 
in Michigan. They buried him there 
on the banks of the river, erecting a 
large cross to mark the grave. As soon 
as the storm-tossed lake was navigable 
his companions hastened on to Mission 
St. Ignace to give the word of his death, 
and on again to Quebec to bring the 
same sad news. 



75 



XII. 

FATHER MARQUETTE. 

The authoritative source of informa- 
tion regarding the life of Marquette is, 
of course, the Jesuit Eelations. Here, 
briefly, is what the Eelation set forth 
concerning the burial of Marquette at 
St. Ignace — Mission St. Ignace in the 
year 1676, In the winter following 
the death and burial of Marquette, on 
the banks of the Marquette River, near 
the shores of Lake Michigan, the 
Ottawas had gone south to fish and 
hunt as was their custom. The name 
Ottawas indicates all the tribes to whom 

the Jesuits of the lake region ministered. 

7o 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Among these Indians were some Kis- 
kakons to whom Marquette had minis- 
tered and whom he had instructed and 
baptized. In the spring, on their way- 
north they sought the grave of the 
missionary, marked by the large cross 
Avhich his two voyagers who had buried 
him had erected. Opening the grave 
they took out the body and reverently 
prepared it for a new burial after the 
Indian fashion. The bones were 
cleansed of all flesh and wrapped in 
aromatic grasses, a coffin of birch-bark 
had been made and in it were placed 
the bones. When all had been pre- 
pared, the coffin was placed in a canoe 
and the funeral procession started north 
to Mission St. Ignace, two hundred and 
fifty miles away, where it arrived on 

June 8th. Father Nouvel and Father 

77 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Pierson were then at Mission St. Ignace. 
It is to be supposed that they had been 
warned by runners of the approach of 
this singular funeral cortege — a pro- 
cession of thirty canoes filled with sor- 
rowing Indians^ and bearing the bones 
of the gentle missionary in a birch-bark 
box. As the canoes turned into the 
bay — Moran Bay — the Fathers, with 
all the people of the mission went down 
to the shore to meet the funeral. Eev- 
erently, the remains were lifted up, the 
De Profundis intoned and they were 
carried in procession to the mission 
church, where they lay in state all that 
day, it being Whit Monday, June 8th., 
1676. The following day — Tuesday? 
June 9th., the birch-box containing 
Marquette's bones was placed in a 
vault, which had been prepared in the 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

middle of the church. We were in- 
clined to think that the translators of 
the Relations have made a mistake in 
rendering the French word by the 
English equivalent "middle." The 
word centre would better have expressed 
what the Relation says, for doubtless 
the vault was in the centre of the 
church before the altar, and not in the 
middle of the church. And now comes 
a singular bit of historic fact to record. 
The church under which Marquette 
was buried was destroyed by fire in 
the year 1706. From that day till 
the year 1877 the burial place of 
Marquette, the site of the much-loved 
Mission of St. Ignace was unknown 
to men.* In September 1877, Father 

* Note M. Alfred Hamy in his recent work on 
Father Marquette, "Au Mississippi" says of the 

79 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Edward Jacker, then pastor of St. 
Ignace discovered the site of the 
church and the very grave of Mar- 
quette, and discovered also the very 
birch-bark box which held his ashes. 
We intend now to relate the facts 
which led up to this discovery. 

burial place of Joliet : " Sa mort arriva en 1669, 
ma is on en ignore la date. De meme ses restes 
mortels n'ont pas ete retrouves. 



80 



XIII, 

FATHER MARQU ETTE. 

In the pleasant summer days of vaca- 
tion time we have observed many hun- 
dreds of tourists visiting the little plot 
where stands the modest monument 
which the citizens of St. Ignace have 
erected to the memory of Marquette. 
We have conversed with many of them, 
eager for information about Father 
Marquette. Some few we have found 
well informed as to exact historic facts ; 
all without exception, full of profound 
respect and admiration, for all know of 
his discovery of the Mississippi and his 

burial here. More than half of those 

81 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

who make the pilgrimage from Macki- 
nac Island to St. Ignace are non- 
Catholics. 

In and about St. Ignace are the de- 
scendants of the great tribes to whom 
Marquette ministered. The Relations^ 
in giving the account of the burial, 
says, " the savages often come to pray 
over his tomb." We are convinced 
that through all these years they have 
never ceased to follow this custom. 
The white man had lost a knowledge of 
the site of Marquette's grave ; not so 
the Indian. At the time of Father 
Jacker's discovery, there was living at 
Sfc. Ignace a very old Indian woman to 
whom appeal, we have been told, was 
made for confirmation of the truth of 
the discovery. For she had knowledge 

in common with all the older Indians, 

82 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

and which they kept secret, of the place. 
Where Marquette was buried. Be 
this as it may, we have many times ob- 
served an old Indian man, who knows 
not a word of English or French, come 
quietly up to the grave, remove his hat 
and stand in reverent posture, while his 
lips move in prayer. More than once 
we have attempted to engage him in 
conversation but without success. He 
speaks and understands only the Chip- 
pewa dialect. Those who live near the 
monument have told us that as lons^ as 
they can remember they have seen this 
old Indian, summer and winter coming 
to pray at the grave of Father Mar- 
quette. So it seems to us, that the 
Indians, so secretive by their nature, 
and without motive to act otherwise, 

kept their knowledge to themselves^ 
83 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

unknown to the rest of the world from 
1706 to 1877. The place of Mar- 
quette's burial was known to them and 
from father to son, through these six 
or seven generations. They quietly 
have come to the grave-side of this holy 
Black-robe to pray. " The savages 
often come to pray over his tomb." 
Yf e have seen at least one old savage, 
often praying at his tomb, during the 
summers of 1898-1902. Using the 
term '' savages " reminds us that once, 
in northern New York, we came across 
a youngster, a lad of fifteen or sixteen 
years of age, as we were wandering 
through the woods, near the shores of 
Lake George. He was a fine specimen 
of the Indians. '^ Etes vous Francais ? " 
we asked him. '' Non Monsieur, Je 

suis un sauvage/' he replied. Time 

84 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

had moved swiftly along since 1706. 
Marquette had taken his place in his- 
tory. His name had been given to lake 
and river, and city and college. His 
dear savages had ceased to exist as a 
people. Pitiable remnants of the great 
tribes were scattered here and there. 
The forest had given place to the farm. 
Civilization had changed the whole face 
of those northern lands. The very 
place where stood Mission St. Ignace, 
and repose the ashes of the great Jesuit, 
was grown over with forest trees and 
brush and the spot was lost to memory 
and the knowledge of men. 



85 



XIV. 

FATHER MARQUETTE. 

The ownership of the land on which 
had stood Mission St. Ignace, consist- 
ing of a log chapel^ the mission house, 
the workshop and the birch-bark wig- 
wams of the Indians, all of which had 
long since disappeared, may thus briefly 
be described. Prior to 1828 a portion 
of the land facing Moran Bay and ex- 
tending to the water's edge was held 
on a squatter's claim by Francis La 
Pointe. This land constituted what a 
voyager or Hudson Bay employe 

would likely have called a plantation, 

86 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

or, as we would say, a small farm. 
Most of this land was covered with for- 
est trees, only a small portion being 
cleared for cultivation. The portion 
extending from the ridge to the water 
front was entirely wooded over. This 
wooded portion had been the site of Mis- 
sion St. Ignace, though no one was 
aware of it. In 1828 Francis La Pointe 
conveyed his squatter's claim to Michael 
Dousman to whom the United States 
Government issued a patent of owner- 
ship in 1830. In 1855, Michael 
Dousman conveyed the land to Talbot 
Dousman and in 1857, Talbot Dousman 
conveyed the land to the Murray family 
who owned it in 1877, the year in which 
Father Jacker made the discovery of 
Marquette's grave, the actual owner 

being Mr. Patrick Murray, who was 

87 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

indeed the actual discoverer of the 
grave. It came about in this way : 
— Mr. Murray being determined to add 
a large garden plot to his yard, began 
to clear away the trees and brushwood 
adjoining his home. When the work 
had been completed there appeared to 
his great astonishment the outlines of 
a building's foundation. Mr. Murray 
was a devout Catholic and knew the 
history of the region, and was fully 
cognizant of the traditions of St. Ig- 
nace concerning Marquette and the old 
Mission St. Ignace. Divining that he 
had struck on some relic of importance 
connected with the old mission, he sent 
for Father Jacker, and together, they 
made a careful investigation. Both 
being satisfied that they had actually 

discovered the site of the old mission, 

88 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Mr. Murray, at Father Jacker's request, 
left the clearing undisturbed till docu- 
ments, and information could be ob- 
tained from Montreal and elsewhere, to 
fully establish their surmise as a fact. 
Then was set on foot a systematic and 
scientific investigation, the outcome of 
which was to establish beyond a doubt 
the fact that they not only had dis- 
covered the site of the old Mission St. 
Ignace, but also Marquette's grave, the 
very box in which his bones had rested, 
portions of the bones themselves. In 
course of time all that was found of 
Marquette's remains save two portions 
of bone which belonged to an arm and 
which were given to Marquette College 
at Milwaukee, and are there lovingly 
and piously preserved by the Jesuit 
Fathers, was re-interred in the very 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

grave from which they were taken and 
in the year 1882, the citizens of St. 
Ignace erected a modest monument 
to mark the spot. 



90 



XY. 

FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Marquette's latest biographer, Mr. 
Reuben Gold Thwaites, of the Historical 
Society of Wisconsin, gives but slight 
notice of the facts concerning the dis- 
covery of the grave. He seems not to 
have been aware of Dr. Gilmary Shea's 
valuable paper on the subject contrib- 
uted some years ago to the Catholic 
World Magazine. Interesting and 
valuable as the charming narrative of 
Mr. Thwaites is, it contains one mistake, 
which we beg to point out. At page 
229, he says :— " The little church of 

St. Ignace was destroyed by fire in 
91 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

1700." — Dr. Shea gives the date as 
1706- — '' and for a century and three 
quarters all traces of the site and of 
Marquette's resting place were lost. 
But in September, 1877, Father Edward 
Jacker a learned missionary priest, then 
in charge of the parish of St. Ignace 
discovered the few mortal remains of 
his great predecessor — some small frag- 
ments of bones, together vdth scraps of 
the birch-bark in which the body had 
been encased by the Kiskakons, two 
centuries before. About a fourth of 
these relics are now exhibited in the 
Church of St. Ignace ; the others in the 
Jesuit College in Milwaukee, which 
bears his name." There are no relics 
of Marquette's now exhibited in the 
Church of St. Ignatius at St. Ignace. 

Besides the two pieces of bone that 

92 




Pho-tograph of the oil painting of St. Ignatius over the high altar m 
the old church at St. Ignace. This is the painting which tradition says 
the Indians took for safe keeping from the Chapel of Mission de St. 
Ignace, Marquette's Chapel, and which they restored when the new 
log church, which is a part of the present church, was built in 1834. 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

were given to the college authorities of 
Marquette College at Milwaukee, all 
that was found of the holy missionary's 
remains, is buried under the monument 
in the little park at St. Ignace on 
Moran Bay. Out of reverence and for 
safe keeping these relics of his precious 
remains were kept in the church until 
the reinterment. But what may be 
seen in the Church of St. Ignatius at 
St. Ignace is a beautiful gold chalice, 
very artistically chased, which tradition 
says was Marquette's own, also a fine 
large oil painting of St. Ignace said 
also to have been a part of the furnish- 
ing of the chapel of the old mission and 
a curious old crucifix. It is stated that 
the Indians had these sacred articles in 
hiding and when the new church was 

built at St. Ignace in 1834 — a log 

95 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

church which is a part of the present 
church structure — they were produced 
and restored to the church. We have 
never been able to verify these tradi- 
tions for facts. There is no record of 
them at the parish church, nor have 
letters written to Sault Ste. Marie and 
Montreal to the Jesuit authorities been 
productive of any information on the 
subject. We shall here reproduce a 
letter written to us by Mr. David E. 
Murray of St. Ignace, a son of Mr. Pat- 
rick Murray who first discovered the 
site of Mission St. Ignace, and reprint, 
with the kind permission of the editor 
of the Catholic World, a part of Dr. 
Shea's article on the discovery. Some 
day, we hope to see a monument be- 
fitting the greatness and sanctity of this 

noble missionary, replace the modest 

96 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

shaft that now marks his final resting 
place. There is a fund for this pur- 
pose amounting to some thousand of 
dollars in the hands of competent 
authorities. 



97 



XVL 



MR. MURRAY'S LETTER. 



" The finding the site of the chapel 
and burial-place of the great missionary 
and explorer, Marquette, after having 
been lost sight of for nearly two hundred 
years came about in the following man- 
ner. In May, 1877, my father, Patrick 
Murray, since deceased — was having 
cleared, for garden purposes, ground 
near his home. The ground was cov- 
ered with closely growing balsam, 
spruce and juniper trees, such as cover 
the hills around the city to-day. When 
work had been completed it exposed to 

view the foundation of a 36x40 build- 

98 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

ing with narrower part facing the lake. 
This foundation of flat limestone, such 
as would be used in lining up a log 
building, stood up so distinctly from 
the ground around that it could not but 
command attention. 

Outside of the line of the foundations, 
near the northwest and southwest 
corners were two heaps of stone evi- 
dently the ruins of two stone fire-places 
and chimneys. There had been no 
building on this ground, within memory 
of any living person ; and trees that 
had stood there went to show that time 
had been long and the years many 
since any structure could have been 
there. My father, knowing from the 
history of this region that somewhere 
in St. Ignace had stood the mission 
chapel of the Jesuits and in which Mar- 
LofC. 99 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

quette had been laid, when brought 
here from the east shore of Lake Michi- 
gan, by the Indians, in 1677, and fur- 
ther, the traditions among old French 
and Indians pointing to the head of the 
bay as the place (where, as they said, a 
great bishop was buried) decided not to 
disturb the ground until investigation 
could be made, believing that he had 
really struck the site of the old chapel. 
He immediately sent for Rev. E. Jacker, 
parish priest at this time, and an Indian 
Missionary as well. Father Jacker, 
convinced in belief that the site of the 
old mission which he and others had 
looked for had been found, requested 
that the ground be left as it was, until 
he could secure records relating to the 
mission, and if possible, a map of place 

showing location. These he secured 

100 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

later in the Relations and La Honton's 
Travels, records which went to show 
that it was the site of the old church 
even to the distance from the water 
and the two heaps of stone were the 
ruins of fire-places of living depart- 
ments on N. W. corner, and work-shop 
on S. W. corner from the chapel. In 
the meantime we, living within a few 
feet of the site found crucifixes of 
various designs, beads, ring, etc., some 
of which we still have and some we gave 
away, at the time of the discovery. On 
what was the site of the work-shops in 
poking around in the ground we un- 
earthed pieces of old iron, scraps of 
copper, etc., which went to still further 
show that it was the old mission. Also 
we found and still have the front face 

of a small lock and from the desim of 

101 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

it and where it was found we conclude 

that it is part of the tabernacle lock. 

After all doubt had been removed as to 

its being the site of the mission from 

records, and the various finds around — 

the next thing in order was to find out 

if Marquette's remains still rested there, 

or were they moved when the Mission 

was abandoned in 1706 and that no 

account had been left of such removal. 

To determine this, in September, 1877, 

in the presence of a good part of the 

population of the village and many 

strangers from other points, search was 

started by excavation, within lines of 

what had been the chapel, beginning at 

a point in front of same, and where 

there was a slighter depression in 

ground, on the theory that a grave, in 

years, would become a depression. 
102 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Work was carried on there, and all 
around, until the cellar in the west end 
was reached. There, when the debris 
had been removed, the level earth-floor 
of a cellar was found. Digging down 
a few feet below the level of the floor 
and in the west end of it, pieces of 
birch-bark were unearthed, and these 
pieces of bark were pulled from black- 
ened sand. There came with them 
pieces of bones, which were what the 
crowd was looking for. A little fur- 
ther digging and the almost intact birch- 
bark bottom of the box, of which the 
pieces had evidently formed top and 
sides, was found. This bottom piece 
rested on three pieces of decayed cedar. 
These pieces of cedar still held their 
full form and outline, but broke up 

into small pieces, when picked up. The 
103 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

bottom bark was cemented into place 
by mortar, which was still intact — all 
this is in accordance with how Mar- 
quette had been buried, and Father 
Jacker, and those working with him, 
decided that they had found all that 
had not turned to dust of the Mission- 
ary. Darkness was coming on, work 
was concluded, Father Jacker taking 
charge of what had been found. The 
next day Joseph Marley, digging around 
in the west end of the cellar, where 
it had caved in on the previous 
evening, found more pieces of bones 
from a human frame, including pieces 
of skull-bone. These were taken to 
Father Jacker and kept with the rest. 
The bones found were disposed of by 
sending part of them to Marquette 

College, in Milwaukee, and placing the 

104 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

balance in a vault under a monument 
erected by the people of the town, in 
1882, on the spot where the bones were 
found. 

There exists no doubt in the mind of 
anyone who lived here at the time of 
the discovering of the site, that the 
various proofs as they came to light 
demonstrated that here was the resting 
place of the great missionary and ex- 
plorer. The oldest Indian in the 
country, Joseph Nisatayp, comes to 
pray at the grave, and I think, because 
of the knowledge that exists with his 
people that, as they put it, a great 
Bishop was buried on this spot, and not 
because of the finding of an unknown 
grave. 

The land on which the Mission 

chapel stood is one of the old French 

105 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

claims and in the possession of the 
Murray s since 1857, coming to them 
through purchase, from Talbot Dous- 
man — coming to Talbot Dousman from 
Michael Dousman in 1855, to Michael 
Dousman from Francis La Pointe in 
1828. Francis La Pointe had held it 
as squatter's claim prior to issue of 
patent by the U. S. Government in 1830. 
The chapel site was deeded to the Jesuit 
College in Detroit, in 1885, in order 
that the grave of Marquette might be 
controlled by the Order of which he 
was a member. In 1889, the city of 
St. Ignace purchased two lots adjoining 
the site and turned it into Marquette 
Park, which is kept up by the city. 
The old painting which is in the pres- 
ent church, has the tradition back of 

it, of having been here in an Indian 
106 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

family from the time the old mission 
was abandoned until 1834, when the 
present church was built. There is 
also a tradition or the statement of an 
old Indian woman, who died a few 
years ago, that in her childhood, a large 
cross had stood where the old mission 
site was found. 

The old chalice, in the church, I 
know nothing of, except that it is very 
old and has always, as far as any per- 
son knows, been in the present church. 

I have tried to learn why the bays 
are called East Moran and West Moran, 
and as far as I can learn, a man named 
Moran lived here at the time they were 
given their name. It was in the same 
way that Graham Point and Shoal got 
their names ; that is named after one of 

the early settlers, " Hudson Bay men." 

107 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Mr. Murray's account of the finding 
of Marquette's grave is both valuable 
and interesting. Its value is all the 
greater for the fact that he has never 
seen Father Jacker's account, nor Dr. 
John Gilmary's Shea's article. He 
was a young lad at the time of the dis- 
covery and saw all that transpired in 
connection with the event, from the 
day his father cut down the trees to 
clear a space for a garden. He wrote 
the above account at our request. It 
is remarkable how wonderfully this 
account tallies with Father Jacker's, 
as given by Dr. Shea. 

Father Jacker's narrative bears date 

of September, 1877— Mr. Murray's 

letter was written November 1902. It 

seems almost a copy of Father Jacker's 

account, yet Mr. Murray has never 
108 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

seen Father Jacker's account. Sitting 
on the veranda, of the Murray resi- 
dence, and looking out across the little 
park where stands the monument that 
marks the grave of Marquette, we have 
more than once listened to the history 
of the discovery told us by Mr. Murray 
and other members of the family. 
They did not vary in the telling from 
the above written account. 



109 



XVII. 

From John Gilmary Shea's article, published in 
the Catholic World Magazine for November, 1877. 

It will be noted that Dr. Shea 
blunders in giving the name of David 
to Mr. Murray, who owned the farm on 
which was found Marquette's grave. 
His name was Patrick, not David. 

" The remains of the pious missionary 
lay in the chapel undoubtedly as long 
as it subsisted. This, however, was 
not for many years. A new French 
post was begun in Detroit, in 1701, by 
La Motte Cadillac. The Hurons and 
Ottawas at Michillimackinac immedi- 
ately emigrated and planted new vil- 
lages near the risinof town. Michilli- 
110 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

mackinac became deserted, except by 
scattered bands of Indians or white 
bush-lopers, as savage as the red men 
among whom they lived. The mission- 
aries were in constant peril and unable 
to produce any fruit. They could not 
follow their old flocks to Detroit, as the 
commandant was strongly opposed to 
them and had a Recollect father as 
chaplain of the post. There was no 
alternative except to abandon Michilli- 
mackinac. The missionaries, not wish- 
ing the church to be profaned or be- 
come a resort of the lawless, set fire to 
their house and chapel in 1706, and re- 
turned to Quebec. The mission ground 
became once more a wilderness. 

In this disheartening departure what 
became of the remains of Father Mar- 
quette? If the missionary bore them 
111 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

to Quebec as a precious deposit some 
entry of their reinterment would ap- 
pear on the Canadian registers, which 
are extremely full and well preserved. 
Father Nouvel and Father Pierson, who 
received and interred them at the mis- 
sion were both dead, and their succes- 
sors might not recall the facts. The 
silence as to any removal, in Charlevoix 
and other writers, leads us to believe 
that the bones remained interred be- 
neath the ruined church. Charlevoix, 
who notes as we have seen, their re- 
moval to Mackinac, and is correct on 
this point, was at Quebec College in 
1706 when the missionaries came down, 
and could scarcely have forgotten the 
ceremony of reinterring the remains of 
Father Marquette, had it taken place 

at Quebec. 

112 



./.THER MARQUETTE. 

II I I il ■ ^l^i^—— 11—1^— —miMMUBM— ■ 

Taking this as a fact, that the bones 
of the venerable missionary, buried in 
their bark box, were left there, the next 
question is : Where did the church 
stand ? 

A doubt at once arises. Three spots 
have borne the name of Michillimack- 
inac : the island in the strait. Point St. 
Ignace on the shore to the north, and 
the extremity of the peninsula at the 
south. The Jesuit Relations as printed 
at the time, and those which remained in 
manuscript till they were printed in our 
time, Marquette's journal and letter, do 
not speak in such positive terms that 
we can decide whether it was on the 
island or the northern shore. Argu- 
ments have been deduced from them on 
either side of the question. On the 

map annexed to the Relations of 1671 
113 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

the words Mission de St. Ignace are on 
the mainland above, not on the island, 
and there is no cross or mark at the 
Island to make the name refer to it. 
On Marquette's own map the " St. Ig- 
nace " appears to refer to the northern 
shore, so that their testimony is in favor 
of that position. 

The next work that treats of Michil- 
limackinac is the Recollect Father Hen- 
nepin's first volume, Description de la 
Louisiane, published in 1688. In this 
(p. 59) he distinctly says : " Michilli- 
mackinac is a point of land at the en- 
trance and north of the strait by which 
Lake Dauphin (Michigan) empties into 
that of Orleans (Huron). He mentions 
the Huron village with its palisade on 
a great point of land opposite Michilli- 

mackinac Island, and the Ottawas, and 
114 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

a chapel where he said Mass August 
26, 1678. The map m Le Clercq's 
Gaspesie, dated 1691, shows the Jesuit 
Mission on the point north of the strait, 
and Father Membre in Le Clercq's 
Etablishment, mentions it as in that 
position. In Hennepin's later work, 
the Nouvel Deciuverte, Utrecht, 1697, 
he says (p. 134). '^ There are Indian 
villages in these two places. Those 
who are established at the point of land 
of Missillimackinac are Hurons, and the 
others, who are at five or six arpents be- 
yond, are named the Outtauatz." He 
then as before, mentions saying Mass 
in the chapel at the Ottawas. 

The Jesuit Relations of 1673-9 
(pp. 58, 59) mentions the " house 
where we make our abode ordinarily, 

and where is the church of St. Igua- 
115 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

tius, which serves for the Hurons," and 
mentions a small bark chapel three- 
quarters of a league distant and near 
the Ottawas. This latter chapel was 
evidently the one where Father Henne- 
pin officiated in 1678 or, as he says 
elsewhere, 1679. 

The relative positions of the Indian 
villages and the church thus indicated 
in Hennepin's account are fortunately 
laid down still more clearly on a small 
map of Michillimackinac found in Nou- 
veaux voyages de M. le Baron de La 
Hontan, published at the Hague in 
1703. Many of the statements in this 
work are preposterously false, and his 
map of his pretended Long River a pure 
invention, exciting caution as to any of 
his unsupported statements. But the 

map of the county around Michillimack- 
116 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

inac agrees with the Jesuit Relations and 
with Father Hennepin's account, and 
has all the appearance of having been 
copied from the work of some professed 
hydrographer, either one of the Jesuit 
fathers like RafPeix, whose maps are 
known, or JoHet, who was royal hydro- 
grapher of the colony. The whole 
map has a look of accuracy, the various 
soundings from the point to the Island 
being carefully given. On this the 
French village, the house of the Jesuits, 
the Huron village, that of the Ottawas, 
and the cultivated fields of the Indians 
are all laid dovm on the northern shore. 
In the text, dated in 1688, he says : 
each " The Hurons and the Ottawas 
have a village, separated from one an- 
other by a simple palisade. . . . The 

Jesuits have a small house, besides a 
117 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

kind of church, in an enclosure of pal- 
isades which separates them from the 
Huron villaofe." 

The publication a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago of the contemporaneous ac- 
count of the death and burial of Father 
Marquette, the humble discoverer of a 
world, excited new interest as to his 
final resting-place. The West owed 
him a monument, and, though America 
gave his name to a city, the Pope en- 
nobled it by making it a bishop's see, 
this was not enough to satisfy the 
yearnings of pious hearts, who grieved 
that his remains should lie forgotten 
and unknown. To some the lack of 
maps laying down the famous spots in 
the early Catholic missions has seemed 
strange ; but the difficulty was very 

great. Eveiy place required special 
US 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

study, and the random guesses of some 
writers have only created confusion, 
where truth is to be attained by close 
study of every ancient record and per- 
sonal exploration of the ground. 
Michillimackinac is not the only one 
that has led to a long discussion and 
investigation. 

Where was the chapel on the point ? 
A structure of wood consumed by fire 
a hundred and seventy years ago could 
scarcely be traced or identified. A 
forest had grown up around the spot 
which in Marquette's time was cleared 
and busy with human life. Twenty 
years ago this forest was in part cleared 
away, but nothing appeared to justify 
any hope of discovering the burial place 
of him who bore the standard of Mary 

conceived without sin down the Mis- 
119 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

sissippi Valley. One pioneer kept up 
his hope, renewed his prayers, and 
pushed his inquiries. The Rev. Ed- 
ward Jacker, continuing in the nine- 
teenth century the labors of Marquette ; 
missionary to the Catholic Indians and 
the pagan, a loving gatherer of all that 
related to the early heralds of the faith, 
tracing their footsteps, explaining much 
that was obscure, leading us to the very 
spot where Menard labored and died — 
was to be rewarded at last. 

A local tradition pointed to one spot 
as the site of an old church and the 
grave of a great priest, but nothing in 
the appearance of the ground seemed 
to justify it. Yet, hidden in a growth 
of low trees and bushes were preserved 
proofs that Indian tradition coincided 
with La Hontan's map and the Jesuit 

records. 

120 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

On the 5th day of May, 1877, the 
clearing of a piece of rising ground at 
a short distance from the beach, at the 
head of the little bay on the farm of 
Mr. David Murray, near the main road 
running through the town, laid bare the 
foundations of a church, in size about 
thirty-two by forty feet, and of two 
adjacent buildings. The Rev. Mr. 
Jacker was summoned to the spot. 
The limestone foundation walls of the 
building were evidently those of a 
church, there being no chimney, and it 
had been destroyed by fire, evidences 
of which existed on every side. The 
missionary's heart bounded with pious 
joy. Here was the spot where Father 
Marquette had so often offered the Holy 
Sacrifice ; here he offered to Mary Im- 
maculate his voyage to explore the river 
121 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

he named in her honor ; here his re- 
mains were received and, after a solemn 
requiem, interred. 

But Father Jacker was a cautious 
antiquarian as well as a devoted priest. 
He compared the site with La Hontan's 
map. If these buildings were the 
Jesuit church and house, the French 
village was at the right ; and there in 
fact could be traced the old cellars and 
log-house foundations. On the other 
side was the Huron village ; the palisades 
can even now be traced. Farther back 
the map shows Indian fields. Strike 
into the fields and small timber, and you 
can even now see sior'ns of rude Indian 
cultivation years ago, and many a relic 
tells of their occupancy. 

The report of the discovery spread 

and was noticed in the papers. Many 
122 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

went to visit the spot^ and ideas of great 
treasures began to prevail. The owner 
positively refused to allow any excava- 
tions to be made ; so there for a time 
the matter rested. All this gave time 
for study, and the conviction of scholars 
became positive that the old chapel site 
was actually found. 

The next step towards the discovery 
of the remains of the venerable Father 
Marquette cannot be better told than 
by the Rev. Mr. Jacker himself : 

" Mr. David Murray, the owner of 

the ground in question, had for some 

time relented so far as to declare that 

if the chief pastor of the diocese upon 

his arrival here, should wish to have a 

search made, he would object no longer. 

Last Monday, then (September 3, 1877), 

Bishop Mrak, upon our request, dug 
123 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

out the first spadeful of ground. On 
account of some apparent depression 
near the centre of the ancient building, 
and mindful of Father Dablon's words, 
' II fut mis dans un petit caveau au 
milieu de Feglise/ we began our search ; 
but being soon convinced that no dig- 
ging had ever been done there before, 
we advanced towards the nearest corner 
of the large cellar-like hollow to the 
left, throwing out all along, two or 
three feet of ground. On that whole 
line no trace of any former excavation 
could be discovered, the alternate layers 
of sand and gravel which generally 
underlie the soil in this neighborhood 
appearing undisturbed. Close to the 
ancient cellar-like excavation a decayed 
piece of a post, planted deeply in the 

ground, came to light. The bottom of 
124 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

that hollow itself furnish just the things 
that you would expect to meet with in 
the cellar of a building destroyed by 
fire, such as powdered charcoal mixed 
with the subsoil, spikes, nails, an iron 
hinge (perhaps a trap-door), pieces of 
timber — apparently of hewed planks and 
joists — partly burned and very much 
decayed. Nothing, however was found 
that would indicate the former existence 
of a tomb, vaulted or otherwise. Our 
hopes began to sink (the good Bishop 
had already stolen away), when, at the 
foot of the western slope of the ancient 
excavations fragments of mortar bearing 
the impress of wood and partly black- 
ened, and a small piece of birch-bark, 
came to light. This was followed by 
numerous others, similar or larger, 

fragments of the latter substance, most 
125 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

of them more or less scorched or crisped 
by the heat, not by the immediate 
action of the fire ; a few only were just 
blackened, and on one side superficially 
burned. A case or box of birch-bark, 
(une quaisse d'escorce de bouleau) ac- 
cording to the Relations, once enclosed 
the rema ^^ of the great mission- 
ary. No wonder our hopes revived 
at the sight of that material Next 
appeared a small leaf of white paper, 
which being quite moist, almost 
dissolved in my hands. We continued 
the search, more with our hands than 
with the spade. The sand in which 
those objects were embedded was con- 
siderably blackened — more so in fact 
than what should be expected, unless 
some digging was done here after the 

fire, and the hollow thus produced filled 
126 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

up with the blackened ground from 

above. Here and there we found 

small particles, generally globular, of a 

moist, friable substance, resembling pure 

lime or plaster-of-paris. None of the 

details of our search being unimportant, 

I should remark that the first pieces of 

birch-bark were met with at a depth of 

about three and a half feet from the 

present surface, and nearly on a level, 

I should judge, vdth the floor of the 

ancient excavation. For about a foot 

deeper down more of it was found, the 

pieces being scattered at different 

heights over an area of about two feet 

square or more. Finally a larger and 

well-preserved piece appeared, which 

once evidently formed the bottom of 

an Indian ' mawhawk ' (wigwas — 

makak — birch-bark box), and rested 
127 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

on clean white gravel and sand. Some 
of our people, who are experts in this 
matter, declared that the bark was of 
unusual thickness, and that the box, or 
at least parts of it, had been double, 
such as the Indians sometimes, for the 
sake of greater durability, use for in- 
terments. A further examination dis- 
closed the fact that it had been placed 
on three or four wooden sills decayed 
parts of which were extracted. All 
around the place once occupied by 
the box the ground seemed to be little 
disturbed, and the bottom piece lay 
considerably deeper than the other ob- 
jects (nails, fragments of timber, a 
piece of glass jar or large bottle, a 
chisel, screws, etc.) discovered on what 
I conceived to have been the ancient 

bottom of the cellar. From these two 
128 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

circumstances it seemed evident that 

the birch-bark box had not (as would 

have been the case with an ordinary 

vessel containing corn, sugar, or the 

like) been placed on the floor, but 

sunk into the ground, and perhaps 

covered with a layer of mortar, many 

blackened fragments of which were 

turned out all around the space once 

occupied by it. But it was equally 

evident that this humble tomb — for 

such we took it to have been — 

had been disturbed, and the box 

broken into and parts of it torn out, 

after the material had been made 

brittle by the action of the fire. This 

would explain the absence of its former 

contents, which — what else could we 

think? were nothing less than Father 

Marquette's bones. We, indeed, found 
129 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

between the pieces of bark two small 
fragments, one black and hard, the 
other white and brittle, but of such a 
form that none of us could determine 
whether they were of the human 
frame." 

"The evening being far advanced, 
we concluded that day's search, pon- 
dering over what may have become of 
the precious remains, which, we fondly 
believe, were once deposited in that 
modest tomb, just in front of what, 
according to custom, should have been 
the Blessed Virgin's altar. Had I 
been in Father Nouvel's place, it is 
there I would have buried the devout 
champion of Mary Immaculate. It is 
the same part of the church we chose 
nine years ago for Bishop Baraga's in- 
terment in the cathedral of Marquette. 
130 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

The suggestion of one of our half- 
breeds that it would be a matter of 
wonder if some Pagan Indians had not, 
after the departure of the missionaries, 
opened the grave and carried off the 
remains pour en faire de la medicine — 
that is, to use the great black-gown's 
bones for superstitious purposes — this 
suggestion appeared to me very prob- 
able. Hence, giving up the hope of 
finding anything more valuable, and 
awaiting the examination by an expert 
of the two doubtful fragments of bone, 
I carried them home (together with 
numerous fragments of the bark box) 
with a mixed feeling of joy and sad- 
ness. Shall this, then, be all that is 
all that is left us of the saintly mis- 
sionary's mortal part ? 

" I must not forget to mention a 
131 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

touching little incident. It so hap- 
pened that while we people at St. 
Ignace were at work, and just before 
the first piece of bark was brought to 
light, two young American travellers — 
apparently Protestants, and pilgrims, 
like hundreds of others all through the 
summer, to this memorable spot — came 
on shore, and having learned the object 
of the gathering with joyful surprise, 
congratulated themselves on having 
arrived at such a propitious moment. 
They took the liveliest interest in 
the progress of the search, lending 
their help, and being in fact to out- 
ward appearances, the most reverential 
of all present. 'Do you realize,' 
would one address the other with air of 
religious awe, ' where we are standing? 

This is hallowed ground ! ' Their 
132 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

bearing struck us all and greatly 
edified our simple people. They 
begged for, and joyfully carried off, 
some little memorials. Isn't it a 
natural thing, that veneration of relies 
we used to be so much blamed 
for? 

" Some hundred and fifty or two 
hundred of our people witnessed the 
search, surrounding us in picturesque 
groups — many of them, though nearly 
white, being lineal descendants of the 
very Ottawas among whom Father Mar- 
quette labored in La Pointe du St. 
Esprit, and who witnessed his interment 
in this place two hundred years ago. 
The pure Indian element was rep- 
resented only by one individual of the 
Ojibwa tribe. 

" On Tuesday our children were con- 
133 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

firmed, and in the afternoon I had to 
escort the bishop over to Mackinac 
Island. Upon my return, yesterday 
evening, a young man of this place 
entered my room, with some little keep- 
sake, taken out a few handfuls of 
ground at a little distance from where 
the box had lain, in the direction of 
what I presume to have been the 
Blessed Virgin's altar, and about the 
height of the ancient cellar floor. 
The result of his search was of such a 
character that he considered himself 
obliged to put me in possession of it. 
"What was my astonishment when he 
displayed on my table a number of 
small fragments of bones, in size from 
an inch in length down to a mere scale, 
being in all thirty-six, and, to all ap- 
pearances, human. Being alone, after 
134 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

nightfall, I washed the bones. The 
scene of two hundred years ago, when 
the Kiskakons, at the mouth of that dis- 
tant river, were employed in the same 
work, rose up before my imagination, 
and though the mists of doubt were 
not entirely dispelled, I felt very much 
humbled that no more worthy hands 
should have to perform this office. So 
long had I wished— and, I candidly 
confess it, even prayed — for the dis- 
covery of Father Marquette's grave, and 
now that so many evidences concurred 
to establish the fact of its having been 
on the spot where we hoped to find it, 
I felt reluctant to believe it. The 
longer, however, I pondered over every 
circumstance connected with our search, 
the more I became convinced that we 

have found what we were desirous to 
135 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

discover. Let me briefly resume the 
train of evidence. 

" The local tradition as to the site of 
the grave, near the head of the little bay ; 
the size and the relative position of the 
ancient buildings, both in the French 
Village and the Jesuits' establishments, 
plainly traceable by little elevated 
ridges, stone foundations, cellars, chim- 
neys, and the traces of a stockade ; all 
this exactly tallying with La Hontan's 
plan and description of 1688 — so many 
concurring circumstances could hardly 
leave any doubt as to the site of the 
chapel in which Marquette's remains 
were deposited. 

" The unwillingness of the proprie- 
tor to have the grave of a saintly priest 
disturbed proved very opportune, not 
to say providential. Within three or 
136 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

four months that elapsed since the first 
discovery many hundreds of persons 
from all parts of the country had the 
opportunity to examine the grounds, as 
jet untouched by the spade. We had 
time to weigh every argument pro and 
eon. Among those visitors there were 
men of intelligence and historical learn- 
ing. I will only mention Judge 
Walker, of Detroit, who has made the 
early history of our Northwest the sub- 
ject of his particular study, and who 
went over the ground with the English 
edition of La Hontan in his hand. He, 
as well as every one alse whose judg- 
ment was worth anything, pronounced 
in favor of our opinion. The balance 
stood so that the smallest additional 
weight of evidence would make it in- 
cline on the side of certainty as abso- 
137 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

lute as can be expected in a case like 
this. 

'^ The text of the Relation, it is true, 
would make us look for a vault, or small 
cellar (ut petit caveau) in the middle 
(au milieu) of the church. But if any- 
thing indicating the existence of a tomb 
in the hollow towards the left side and 
the rear part of the chapel were dis- 
covered, could we not construe those 
words as meaning within the church ? 
Besides, it must be remembered that 
Father Dablon, who left us the account, 
was not an eye-witness at the inter- 
ment ; nor did he visit the mission 
after that event, at least up to the time 
of his writing. 

"We know, then, that Marquette's 

remains were brought to the place in a 

birch-bark box and there is nothing to 
138 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

indicate that, previously to being in- 
terred, they were transferred into any 
other kind of receptacle. In that box 
they remained under the catafalco (sous 
sa representation) from Monday, June 
8, to Tuesday 9, (1677), and in it, un- 
doubtedly, they were deposited in a 
vault or little cellar, which may have 
previously been dug out for other pur- 
poses. The box was sunk into the 
ground on that side of the excavation 
w^hich was nearest to the altar, or, at 
least, the statue of the Blessed Virgin, 
the most appropriate spot for the inter- 
ment of the champion of Mary Imma- 
culate. An inscription, on paper, in- 
dicating whose bones were contained in 
the box, might have been placed within 
it ; of this the piece of white paper we 

found among the bark may be a frag- 
139 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

ment. The poor casket rested after 
the Indian fashion on wooden supports. 
It may have been covered with mortar 
and white lime or else a little vault con- 
structed of wood and mortar may have 
been erected over it. When the build- 
ing was fired, twenty-nine years after 
the interment, the burning floor to- 
gether with pieces of timber from above 
fell on the tomb, broke the frail vault 
or mortar cover of the box, burned its 
top, and crisped its sides. Some of the 
pagan or apostate Indians remaining in 
that neighborhood after the transmigra- 
tion of the Hurons and Ottawas to De- 
troit, though filled with veneration 
for the departed missionary (as their 
descendants remained through four 
or five generations) or rather for the 

very reason of their high regard for his 
140 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

priestly character and personal virtues, 
and of his reputation as a thaumatur- 
gus, coveted his bones as a powerful 
medicine, and carried them off. In 
taking them out of the tomb they tore 
the brittle bark and scattered its frag- 
ments. The bones being first placed 
on the bottom of the cellar, behind the 
tomb, some small fragments became 
mixed up with the sand, mortar, and 
lime, and were left behind. 

" Such seems to me the most natural 
explanation of the circumstances of the 
discovery. Had the missionaries them- 
selves, before setting fire to the church, 
removed the remains of their saintly 
brother, they would have been careful 
about the least fragment ; none of 
them, at least, would have been found 

scattered outside of the box. That 
141 



FATHER MABQUETTE. 

robbing of the grave by the Indians 
must have taken place within a few 
years after the departure of the mis- 
sionaries, for had those precious remains 
been there when the mission was re- 
newed (about 1708 ?), they would most 
certainly have been transferred to the 
new church in ^ Old Mackinac ; ' and 
had this been the case, Charlevoix, at 
his sojourn there in 1721, could hardly 
have failed to be taken to see the tomb 
and to mention the fact of the transfer 
in his journal or history. 

" Our next object, if we were to be 
disappointed in finding the entire re- 
mains of the great missionary traveller, 
was to ascertain the fact of his having 
been interred on that particular spot, 
and in this I think, we have fully suc- 
ceeded. Considering the high prob- 
142 



FATlIEPo MARQUETTE. 

ability — ' a priori/ so to say — of the 
Indian's taking possession of the bones^ 
the finding of those few fragments 
under the circumstances described, 
seems to me, if not as satisfactory to 
our wishes, at least as good evidence 
for the fact in question, as if we had 
found every bone that is in the human 
body. Somebody — an adult person — 
was buried under the church ; buried 
before the building was destroyed by 
fire; and buried under exceptional cir- 
cumstances — the remains being placed 
in a birch-bark box, of much smaller 
size than an ordinary coffin^ — who else 
could it have been, but one whose 
burial, with all its details of time, place, 
manner, as recorded in most trust- 
worthy records, answers all the circum- 
stances of our discovery ? 
143 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

" September 7tli. — Went again to tha 
grave to-day, and, after searching a 
little while near the spot where the 
young man found the bones, I was re- 
warded with another small fragment 
apparently those of the skull, like two 
or three of those already found. Two 
Indian visitors, who have called in, 
since declared others to be the ribs of 
the hands, and of the thigh-bone. 
They also consider the robbing of the 
grave by their pagan ancestors as ex- 
tremely probable. To prevent profana- 
tion and the carrying off of the loose 
ground in the empty grave, we covered 
the excavation with a temporary floor, 
awaiting contributions from outside — 
we are too poor ourselves for the pur- 
pose of erecting some kind of a tomb 

or mortuary chapel in which to pre- 
144 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

■■iimii !■ a—— BMt— BsaMiiMii im i iii in« 

serve what remains of the perishable 
part of the ' Guardian Angel of the 
Ottawa Missions." 

" I shall not send you this letter be- 
fore having shown some of the bones 
to a physician, for which purpose I 
have to go outside. 

^^ Sheboygan, Mich., Sept. 11.— M. 
Pommier, a good French surgeon, de- 
clared the fragments of bones to be 
bones undoubtedly human, and bearing 
the marks of fire." 

" The result is consoling, though not 
unmixed with pain. It is sad to think 
that the remains of so saintly priest, so 
devoted a missionary, so zealous an ex- 
plorer should have been so heathenishly 
profaned by Indian medicine-men ; but 
the explanation has every appearance 

of probability. Had the Jesuit mis- 
145 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

sionaries removed the remains, they 
would have taken up the birch-box 
carefully, enclosing it, if necessary, in a 
case of wood. They would never have 
torn the birch-bark box rudely open, 
or taken the remains so carelessly as to 
leave fragments. All the circum- 
stances show the haste of profane rob- 
bery. The box was torn asunder in 
haste, part of its contents secured, and 
the excavation hastily filled up. 

" The detailed account of the final 
interment of Father Marquette, the 
peculiarity of the bones being in a bark 
box, evidently of small size for con- 
venient transportation, the fact that no 
other priest died at the mission who 
could have been similarly interred, 
leads irresistibly to the conclusion that 
Father Jacker is justified in regarding 
146 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

the remains found as portion of those 
committed to the earth two centuries 
ago. 

^^ It is now for the Catholics of the 
United States to rear a monument 
there to enclose what time has spared 
us of the " Angel Guardian of the 
Ottawa Missions/' 

John Gilmahy Shea. 



147 



XVIII. 

FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Not without great reluctance we 
here add a word to what has gone be- 
fore to express a doubt concerning 
some conjectures put forth by John 
Gihnary Shea and Father Edward 
Jacker in regard to the destruction of 
the mission chapel and in regard to the 
desecration of Marquette's grave by 
hostile pagan Indians. First in regard 
to the destruction of the chapel. 
Shea's theory is that the Fathers them- 
selves set fire to the chapel to save it 
from sacrileofe. This does not seem to 

us at all probable. 

148 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Surely they would not have done so 
without having first removed the re- 
mains of the sainted Marquette buried 
in the little vault beneath the floor. 
Dablon's high estimation of the 
sanctity and his veneration and ad- 
miration of the beautiful character of 
Marquette, was shared by all the 
Fathers of the mission. "The Angel 
Guardian of the Ottawa Missions/' was 
how they designated him. The ease 
with which his sacred remains might 
have been removed, again leads us to 
doubt that the Fathers destroyed the 
church without having taken them 
away. They were not in a large or 
heavy coffin incased within a box. 
They were in a small birch box. The 
skeleton was not intact. The bones 

had been taken apart by the Indians 
119 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

when they prepared them for trans- 
portation from the shores of Lake 
Michigan. The box that was made 
to hold them was not large and might 
with ease have been lifted from the 
grave and taken to safety, had the 
Fathers themselves destroyed the 
church. And to our mind it seems 
beyond question that they would have 
removed the remains even in the face 
of great danger and urgent need for 
haste. It is plain, moreover, that Father 
Dablon regarded Marquette as a saint. 
Father Dablon 's opinion was that of 
every Father of the Ottawa mission. 
They would not have left the remains 
of a saint to desecration any more than 
he would have left the sacred vessels of 
the altar to desecration. There are no 

documentary evidences that the Fathers 
150 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

of the mission destroyed the church, 
just as there are no documentary evi- 
dences that when the mission was 
abandoned Marquette's remains were 
left where they had been buried. 
Great stress is laid on the fact that no 
document of any kind has ever been 
discovered that record the fact that the 
Fathers had removed the remains, 
when they fired the church, and Shea's 
argument on this point is strong in 
favor of the conjecture that they never 
had been removed. It seemed to us 
that the very same arguments may be 
used to show that they themselves had 
not fired the church. Moreover, it 
appears to us that the very natural 
supposition to be made in regard to the 
matter, is that the church was des- 
troyed by hostile pagan Indians. 
151 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Now what are the actual facts that 
are of record in connection with the 
matter ? I. A new fort had been built 
at Detroit. II. An Indian village had 
been estabhshed there where the Chris- 
tian Indians had military protection. 
III. This mission was not in charge of 
the Jesuits, but of the Recollects. 
TV. The Commandant of the post at 
Detroit, La Motte CadiUac, was op- 
posed to the Jesuits and this was 
known to the Indians, which weakened 
the influence and authority of the 
Father. V. The Christian Indians had 
abandoned Mission St. Ignace for the 
new Mission at Detroit. VI. The lives 
of the Fathers were in danger at Mis- 
sion St. Ignace. VII. The pagan 
Indians were hostile. 

This is all. Here conjecture begins, 
152 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

and Shea conjectures that the Fathers 
themselves fired the church to save it 
from desecration, leaving the remains of 
Marquette beneath the ruins. It does 
not seem to us at all probable. The 
likelihood of the matter seems to be 
this. Their lives being in danger, the 
Fathers had gone north to the Sauit, or 
Quebec or Montreal for consultation 
and if possible to obtain aid, leaving 
the mission in charge of such Christian 
Indians as still remained there. During 
their absence there was an outbreak of 
the pagan savages, and it was then that 
the church was destroyed. 

The Fathers learning that this had 
taken place and the post having be- 
come more dangerous, so that to re- 
turn would have been needlessly to 

have risked their lives without good 
153 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

coming of it^ they abandoned the mis- 
sion altogether. If there be any truth 
in the tradition that the oil painting 
now in the church of St. Ignace and 
the chalice which is there, are relics 
saved from the old mission by the 
Christian Indians at the time of its de- 
struction and sacredly preserved by 
them from generation to generation, 
and at last restored to the church in 
1834, then our conjecture seems the 
more probable. 

The Fathers were absent. After the 
destruction of the mission they dared 
not return. So Marquette's remains 
were left where they were found in 
1877 — beneath the ashes of the burnt 
chapel. 



154 



XIX. 

FATHER MARQUETTE. 

i[i iimii immn— iwiiiimwTiTTTT iiifi 

Now in regard to the desecration of 
Marquette's grave by pagan Indians 
after the chapel had been destroyed, 
Father Jacker's conjecture that the 
grave had been so desecrated came 
from a remark made by a bystander, an 
an Indian half-breed at the time of the 
excavation and search. What they 
found in the grave was not in one place 
but scattered about. 

So the half-breed suggests that per- 
haps the pagan Indian, some medicine- 
man of the tribe, had broken open the 

grave and extracted some of the bones 
155 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

of Marquette " pour en f aire de la medi- 
cine " — to work magic with. From con- 
versations with some o£ those who were 
present at the time search was made, 
and who took part in it, we are con- 
strained to believe that what ever sep- 
aration of the remains there was, was 
due to the manner in which the exca- 
vating was done. Too many had part 
in it and there was not a systematic 
uncovering of the entire church site. 
Digging was done here and there. 

The result was what might have been 
expected, confusion and disorder in the 
work. Nor was Father Jacker always 
present, while the work was going on. 
Two of the best preserved parts of 
bones, parts that were examined and 
pronounced to be of an adult person, 

were found by one Joseph Marley, in 
156 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

Father Jacker's absence. Rumors were 
afloat that treasures were also buried 
there, and so the idle, the curious, and 
the greedy were anxious to dig, in 
order that, if possible, they might un- 
earth something to their personal gain. 
In spite of the vigilance of Mr. Murray, 
the owner of the site, digging was 
going on all the time. Even children 
were engaged in poking about the dirt 
with sticks, and we have seen one of 
the curious rings, a number of which 
were found at the time, that a child 
picked up while poking about through 
the loosened earth. If the birch-box, 
or its outlines was not found intact and 
undisturbed, just as the place where it 
had rested and the cedar beams on 
which it had laid were found in tact, it 

was because suf&cient care had not been 
157 



FATHER MARQUETTE . 

exercised and there was too much haste 
and anxiety to reach the bones them- 
selves. They forgot, in their earnest 
search, that two hundred years had 
passed since the holy missionary's re- 
mains were placed in that spot, and 
that the ravages of time had turned 
most of those sacred relics into dust. 
Father Jacker had but scant encourage- 
ment in his research. Many scouted 
the idea that Marquette's burial place 
had been discovered. Nor would there 
have been a crowd of more than two 
hundred as there was, to witness the 
first digging, had it not been spread 
abroad that there a treasure was to be 
unearthed. But, after all, it was well 
that such a rumor had gone forth, for 
it added to the crowd many witnesses, 

who were not Catholics, and who also 

158 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

attested to the facts as Father Jacker 
and Dr. Shea have set them forth. 
But there was not sufficient evidence to 
conjecture that the grave had been 
desecrated and a part of its contents 
taken out. We humbly submit the 
opinion, that the grave had never been 
disturbed, till the spade of Father 
Jacker and his co-laborers dug into the 
soil in September, 1877. A careful 
study of Father Jacker's account, as 
given by Dr. Shea, and our information 
obtained from persons who took part in 
the search, convince us that the grave 
had never been disturbed. 



159 



XX. 

FA THER MARQUETTE. 

No reasonable doubt may be enter- 
tained that the monument at St. Ignace 
marks the place of the grave of the 
great missionary and that beneath it 
repose his sacred ashes. When we 
read Father Dablon's account of him, 
an account all too meagre, we are filled 
with admiration for his beautiful and 
heroic character, for his exalted and 
heroic sanctity — when we reflect on the 
voyage he made and the discovery of 
the Mississippi, the difficulties, the 
dangers, the hardships of it all, the 

vast scope of it and the results to the 
160 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

civilization of this country, we wonder 
with astonishment that he was so long 
in being accorded his place in history. 
The fact is, we are not able to realize 
what the voyage was. Statistics but 
feebly help us to do so. Here is an 
outline of the extent of the voyage 
made by General Wood, Inspector 
General of the United States army : — 

From Green Bay up Fox River to 
Portage 175 miles. 

From the Portage, down the Wiscon- 
sin to the Mississippi 175 miles. 

From the mouth of the Wisconsin, to 
the mouth of the Arkansas 1087 miles. 

From the Arkansas to the Illinois 
River „ 547 miles. 

From the Illinois River to Chicago. . . 305 miles. 

From Chicago to Green Bay, by the 
lake shore 260 miles. 

Total 2549 miles. 

It will be noted that General Wood 

in this estimate of distance covered by 
161 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

the famous voyage omits the distance 
from St. Ignace to Green Bay — which 
will add another hundred miles or 
more. John Gilmary Shea in his 
" Discovery and exploration of the 
Mississippi valley " estimates the dis- 
tance travelled from St. Ignace to Green 
Bay to have been 218. Father Dablon 
in giving the account of his burial on 
the banks of the river where he died 
says : " God did not permit so precious 
a deposit to remain unhonored and for- 
gotten amid the forests." . . . "He 
gave them " — (the Kiskakon Indians) 
" the thought of taking his bones and 
conveying them to our church at the 
mission of St. Ignace at Michillimack- 
inac." Nor did God permit so preci- 
ous a deposit to remain unhonored and 

forgotten beneath the ruined mission 
162 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

church at Mission St. Ignace. In His 
own due time and through His own 
chosen agents He discovered to the 
world the place of burial and the 
'' precious deposit." Ever since the 
discovery, year after year, all during 
the summer months, hundreds of pil- 
grims visit this sacred spot. There is 
no great fane to mark it. There is 
only a modest monument which a re- 
cent biographer calls untasteful. Nor 
is more needed. Art would not lend a 
single feature to this hallowed spot of 
ground. There before his grave is the 
Bay, and beyond the beautiful Huron. 
Around are the bluffs, covered as in 
Marquette's own time with cedars, and 
balsams, beech, and birch trees. There 
is the golden sunlight. There is the 

sweet-scented breeze from the pines of 
163 



FATHER MARQUETTE. 

the North. There is the fitting temple 
for the place of repose of this great 
lover of God's great world. So long 
as the Cross marks the sacred spot it is 
enough. Let his real monument be 
the admiration, the veneration, of every 
man who can discern worth, nobility of 
character, unselfishness, self-sacrifice, 
greatness of mind, unswerving devotion 
to duty, faith in God, His goodness 
and His mercy — for all these did noble 
Marquette exemplify in his short life. 



164 



FROM CANTERBURY TO ROME. 



By B. F. De Costa. With notes of travel 
in Europe and the East, showing the gradual 
formation of Catholic belief and steps taken 
in passing out of the Protestant communion 
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Pp. 499. Net, $1.25. 



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ipwgTFi^ ^aBB^aanagBE intMfWiii iii n 

By B. F. De Costa, D.D. Historical facts 
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CHRISTIAN TRUTHS. 

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THE CHRISTIAN AT MASS ; 

rTrii»inriiiip«Tnniiiii i«N i i iirnBnrinir-iMiiii»i»rii¥i»irMiiBiMnw 

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INVITATION HEEDED, THE. 

Reasons for a Return to Catholic Unity. 
By James Kent Stone. 

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JOURNAL OF EUGENIE DE GUERIN. 

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TREASURE OF THE DEVOUT SOUL. 

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LEHTEN SERMONS. 

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LECTURES TO MIXED CONGREGATIONS. 

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SEVEN GATES OF HEAVEN; 

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CHRIST'S KINGDOM ON EARTH ; 

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NOUET'S MEDITATIONS, 

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Our author commences with the first Sun- 
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SERMONS 



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TKE DAY OF AIT INVALID. 



From the French of Abbe Henri Perreyve. 
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THE BIBLE OF THE SICK. 



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ON THE THRESHOLD OF LIFE. 

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VISITS TO THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



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VIA SALUTIS; 



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NOTES 



A Missionary Priest in the Rocky Mountains. 
A book with the modest title ''Notes" is 
written by Rev. J. J. Gibbons, and gives a 
very vivid idea of the sort of life a priest leads 
in the Rocky Mountains— ito toils and hard- 
ships and also its consolations. Father Gib- 
bons writes entertainingly and the book holds 
the attention of the reader from the start to 
finish. Price 75c., postpaid. 



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